Have your cake and eat it too
Have Your Cake and Eat it Too
Dialogue
About an argument between two people
The first sound is the pre-recorded voice of Boris Hladek talking in German. The second sound is the rhythmic noise of a clock ticking. My last sound is the exclamation of “dammit” from the female character.Its running time is exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds
I started my endeavor by searching last year’s podcasts from the festival to try and understand what I should attempt. I found the German podcast from Boris Hladek, and fell in love with it. I knew I wanted to use it in my final product. This was the only constraint I had for a while, and I decided to develop a story line around it. I thought it would be interesting to try and hold a conversation with Boris. The other two oulipian constraints didn’t play a part until later. I finished my story and realized I still needed to somehow incorporate these two things in. The second constraint of the clock related to the background music I designed for the podcast. I thought the idea of time was an interesting concept when the storyline had to do with a potential death. The third constraint of the exclamation was the final decision I made. I really wasn’t sure at all what I wanted my exclamation to be. After listening to my podcast a few times I thought “dammit” would be appropriate. I chose a woman to hold the dialogue with the German character because I wanted it to appear like they may have had a relationship. They background music was something I developed in garage band. It starts simple and adds layers of music. This creates a climax where there is also a climax in the story. The music adds another layer to the story and helps make sense of the clock tick at the end. I hoped to convey the effect that there was a relationship problem between this couple. It may or may not be because of the language barrier. The woman started out calm and nice, but then got crazier and crazier when she wasn’t able to understand what the man was saying. She interpreted him wrongly which greatly angered both of them. In the end a gunshot is heard. It is not known what was being shot at. I think I was fairly successful. The hardest part for me was the time constraint. We were supposed to get it in exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds. I accomplished this, but I had to stretch out and shorten a few areas that I would not have normally done that for. The dialogue was affected by the time constraint as well. If I had to go back and fix it, I would make it flow better. I would also try to create a tie in to when the two characters start talking at the same time at the end. I would have liked more of this interaction at the beginning as well. I would also think about changing my three sounds. I definitely liked the German, but it would be interesting to experiment with this anyway. The technology was horrible. I’m not a very technologically inclined person. I had tremendous difficulties with it the whole time. It took probably 5 times longer than it should to create because I kept losing the podcast. My skill with computers is the only thing I hated about the technology though. I loved being able to layer sound, and cut and paste it as well. This is a very simple medium to work with, that allows the creator to create exactly what they want. All it takes is a few tries to get it perfect. I would definitely like to use this medium again sometime. acclivity. SmallCarriageClockTicking.wav.<http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30608>HerbertBoland.GunshotsSynthesized.wav. <http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30185>Boris Hladek
http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KG/cake_covers/Boris-Hladek_Cake.mp3
December 8th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Laura,
I love that you took up the idea of re-mediating one of the pieces submitted to the contest. I’d wondered where you’d found “Boris.”
I really appreciate the humor of this piece. I don’t know if you know German at all–mine is limited–but if I remember correctly “Kuchen” is cake. The fact that all Boris wants to communicate is his love and desire for cake while the female character wants to discuss their relationship, cracks me up.
I also noted the increasingly complexity in sound as the argument heats up. I thought this culminated well in the break down of Boris’s voice at the end. The kitchen timer there is also funny; it replaces the clock ticking at the beginning and of course could be a reference to the cake which has now finished baking. At least, that’s what I like to imagine.